Announcements

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s second hearing of 2019 seeks to evaluate two sets of relationships. In the first panel, hearing witnesses will review Chinese companies’ participation in the U.S. economy, and in the second panel, hearing witnesses will review U.S. companies’ participation in the Chinese economy. Both panels will assess implications of this participation for U.S. businesses, workers, consumers, and investors.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission released a report entitled China’s Biotechnology Development: The Role of U.S. and Other Foreign Engagement, prepared for the Commission by Gryphon Scientific and Rhodium Group. The report examines the development of China’s biotechnology industry and the role foreign trade, investment, and other linkages—particularly with the United States—have played in its evolution.

This hearing will examine the internal and external challenges the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) faces in its attempts to consolidate power at home and increase its influence abroad. The first panel is designed to explore the implications of President Xi and the CCP’s tightening control over economic and security policy making. The second panel examines China’s domestic challenges, considering China’s economic weakness and financial sector risks, the risks and benefits of China’s state-led economic policies, and the country’s reliance on a number of key foreign technologies. The third panel assesses China’s external challenges, focusing on the People’s Liberation Army’s shortcomings and the limits of Chinese soft, sharp, and hard power.

Highlights of This Month’s Edition
 Bilateral Trade: The U.S. trade deficit in goods with China totaled $37.9 billion in November 2018, a 6.9 percent increase over November 2017; in Q3 2018, U.S. services exports to China grew 2.4 percent but the pace of growth for exports and imports has steadily declined since 2016.
 Bilateral Policy Issues: In 2018, Chinese FDI to the United States reached $4.8 billion, 83.4 percent drop year-on-year, while Chinese venture capital investments in the United States reached record levels.
 Quarterly Review of China’s Economy: China’s economy grew 6.6 percent year-on-year in 2018—the weakest annual pace since 1990—as the effects of China’s deleveraging campaign and trade tensions with the United States start to take a toll; state-owned enterprises enjoyed strong profits in 2018 despite a general economic slowdown, benefiting from the private sector credit crunch and renewed government support; the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reports China’s declining housing prices slowed toward the end of 2018, though prices in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities continued to fall.

The Trump Administration cited China as a major reason behind its decision to announce U.S. intentions to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia. China is not a party to the INF Treaty, which has allowed Beijing to rapidly expand its missile arsenal as part of a military strategy designed to counter U.S. and allied military power in Asia. China has consistently refused to accede to the accord and expressed its opposition to U.S. withdrawal, positions that implicitly recognize the advantages Beijing derives from being unconstrained by the treaty’s limits. This report explains the importance of China’s ground-launched missiles to Beijing’s overall military strategy; surveys Chinese reactions to the potential U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty; and assesses both the positive and negative implications of U.S. withdrawal for the military balance in Asia, global arms control regime, U.S. relations with Asian allies, and China-Russia ties.

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The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was created by the United States Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.